Logical conclusion why Classic will have the biggest playerbase

[Demithio]

No, they'll do the same thing they do on live. They don't leave because their tired of the current version of wow, they leave because their tired of wow period and only join shortly to view the new content. keep dreaming.

A huge number of people left due to being disillusion with the way WoW was going development wise. Me being one of them. if WoW hadn't of gone the way of watered down soup, I would still be playing. I'm sure x amount of them left due to getting bored with WoW in general, but this was not the whole and primary reason for the large drops. In any case, it would be safe to say that it could even be a 50/50 split for the sake of compromise. You cant deny however that WoW subs took a massive hit after wotlk once Cataclysm started showing its ugly head with homogenization, simplification, etc etc

[Donald Hellscream]

Don't you think the dead horse has been molested enough at this point?

I get it you want classic to have a bigger playerbase than current WoW but don't you think the horse deserves a rest?

[Hitei]

Same reason 3 million people came back for WoD, then 6 million for Legion... these vanilla/bc/wrath players keep comign back for a short bit hoping for the amazing game they used to love. But it isn't there and they drop like flies in 3-6 months.

NOW when they come back, it will actually BE the game they loved. Millions will come back and stay for classic... overshadowing the "current wow".

No projecting... common sense.

This assumes, incorrectly, that those returning players left for that reason, and also that they would stay for classic.
Wrath was the most popular expansion in history--Players looking for wrath aren't going to stay for vanilla, lol. It is the expansion that started trending hard away from the vanilla approach.

Some of those players will come back, play classic, realize it's still a 12 year old game and leave.
Some will come back, play classic, realize all the terrible small things they forgot and leave.
Some will come back, play classic, blow through the content because there is very little in classic that is actually challenging to someone who knows how to play the game with any sort of decent skill, and then leave.

A small number of people will come back, play classic and then stick around.

What you are going to actually see is Classic hitting a high number immediately after launch, then dropping a significant amount right after, then continuing to drop at a steady pace until it is only the sort of people who currently play private servers (i.e. <50,000, a fraction of what live has). I don't know why people are deluding themselves into thinking classic is going to have higher numbers than BfA 6 months down the line when BfA is still releasing new content and people are already getting sick of the handful of raids. Much less 18 months down the line when Naxx is being farmed and regular wow is still putting out new content.

[Deleted]

How is that even close to a relevant comparison? Mine craft is a huge sandbox with no set goals...sure you can spend hours and hours and hours building shit..I can do the same thing on Roller Coaster Tycoon...how does that make it even remotely the same?

Roller Coaster Tycoon is not an MMORPG, Minecraft is. So I don't get your point. Minecraft provides a very similar experience as vanilla WoW, but people seem to fail to realize that because of the superficial differences.

[chezwickcheese]

There will be a massive spike in popularity then a fast and gradual drop off. The classic servers will be cool for those end of expansion times where there isn't much to do in game.

[Alienshroom]

I saw two threads with an almost identical name yesterday, I even checked to make sure the OP was different. It honestly is as bad as the we want flying threads. The mass of the posters never actually played Vanilla, they just want some control since it is now a thing.

The horror... this is classic forum and we have little information out right now. If retail apologists would go back to their own forum people would stop trolling them here. We are basking in victory and glory.

[Maudib]

What you are going to actually see is Classic hitting a high number immediately after launch, then dropping a significant amount right after, then continuing to drop at a steady pace until it is only the sort of people who currently play private servers (i.e. <50,000, a fraction of what live has). I don't know why people are deluding themselves into thinking classic is going to have higher numbers than BfA 6 months down the line when BfA is still releasing new content and people are already getting sick of the handful of raids. Much less 18 months down the line when Naxx is being farmed and regular wow is still putting out new content.

Apparently Blizzard disagrees with you... the scenario you describe makes it idiotic for them to launch WoW CLassic.

But I respect your right to have an incorrect opinion... we will see.

[Deleted]

In all honesty.. Can we just stop with these type of threads? What do they contribute anyway, just play the type of game you enjoy. Does it really matter who ''is the winner'' subwise?

[greysaber]

I started wow about 2 weeks before TBC hit, so I missed most of Vanilla.

I will most assuredly be giving Blizzard money again when classic hits; unless they change it too much. If it has RDF, flying, dumbed down... anything; i won't be subbing.

[Concequence]

Apparently Blizzard disagrees with you... the scenario you describe makes it idiotic for them to launch WoW CLassic.

But I respect your right to have an incorrect opinion... we will see.

I think that players will come back and remember how very very different Vanilla wow was from even the leveling experience in say... Cata.
Remember nothing was streamlined... the quests made you go everywhere, sometimes crossing continents and back, several times in a single session.

I think there is a reason players will stay, they can do all the things they never got to do in Vanilla. Fighting Kazzak while the alliance spies call in a raid to grief them. (this was even possible on PVE... Kazzak leveled every time he killed a player), Getting to do the AQ questline, and actually completing it, getting a Mount. Getting to play with the old Tree system, it was VERY different. Finding that C'Thun is not a pushover with 40 people, and the "dance" was nearly impossible to get right (chain lightning wipes for all) Getting to actually do the AQ opening events... including the farming portion, and organizing, and watching your server work together (you might not think this is fun, but community is a thing we lost, which vanilla requires) Old Dungeons... they were different. Collecting a Dungeon 0.5 set, and getting to do the BRD Arena event. Azurgos... the ghosty one. Getting off the map... Old Hyjal was fun to get into, you'd be surprised how incomplete the map really is. Also Shaman tanking. (yeah Vanilla had that), Old Naxx, Invasion events... holy crap Hakkar Plague!

And you guys think that new players would not like this. Classic games are super popular, the Switch is the indie game hub... and the sales are incredible, for old style games. People actually like challenge, and the current wow offers less of that. The Challenge is mostly in Mythics. But back then the game itself had a level of ruthlessness to it. It was born out of needing a slightly less nightmarish EQ at the time. They toned down leveling, and soloability became a thing, but the difficult of that era of mmos, was real.

[Soeroah]

Truly too much to list... but lack of boost items from AH, fresh server economy, a slower pace, zones filled with people (ALIVE once more!)

Chat filled with people asking for and giving help... groups being made for Deadmines... mages providing portals & water/food. rogues providing lockpicking, people buffing you as you walk by.. just because.

If you truly cannot imagine how a "fresh start" iis different than live... then that explains why you are unable to see that current wow lacks all imagination.

No, there's just multiple interpretations of "fresh start", so just using the phrase on its own isn't helpful.

You're speaking about a reboot. Fresh start can also just mean starting from scratch with a new account, or starting a new character on a new server after deleting all your Bnet friends, but keeping your account-wide collections. It can mean starting a new main on the opposite faction on a different type of server and deleting your old roster.

[Maudib]

No, there's just multiple interpretations of "fresh start", so just using the phrase on its own isn't helpful.

You're speaking about a reboot. Fresh start can also just mean starting from scratch with a new account, or starting a new character on a new server after deleting all your Bnet friends, but keeping your account-wide collections. It can mean starting a new main on the opposite faction on a different type of server and deleting your old roster.

LOL... yeah it COULD mean any of that. Riiiggghhhttt.

Fresh start means just that... everything is fresh. Like day one of the game was. It's like all these "genders" that have been made up... no there are two genders, and making up some term and calling it a gender doesn't make it so.

Fresh start is a fresh start. It is not ambiguous.

[Hitei]

Apparently Blizzard disagrees with you... the scenario you describe makes it idiotic for them to launch WoW CLassic.

But I respect your right to have an incorrect opinion... we will see.

No. They are just tired of hearing people whine about it, so they'll do it for the brief burst of initial traffic (read: a quick burst of money) and then as the servers die down they'll lower support for it (because there isn't any new content going to it anyway) down to just the typical maintenance.

Then, it will be like just another set of servers. A few realms that have typical GM support and get minor bug fixes.

[Devilyaki]

Just cause you want to play it doesn’t mean everyone wants too. If that is the case though you’ll see the fastest drop off as well.

[uopayroll]

- returning old players
- players from main wow
- new players who never tried wow because they couldnt get a 'clean start'
- new players in general

Logical reason why it will not....fewer actual servers. Look at the list of servers, do you foresee that many on the classic tab?

[Maudib]

No. They are just tired of hearing people whine about it, so they'll do it for the brief burst of initial traffic (read: a quick burst of money) and then as the servers die down they'll lower support for it (because there isn't any new content going to it anyway) down to just the typical maintenance.

Then, it will be like just another set of servers. A few realms that have typical GM support and get minor bug fixes.

What I truly wonder... is how they are going to simulate activity on live when even CRZ won't be able to scrape up enough players to make it look like people are still playing it.

What you describe about might actually be your own worst nightmare. Blizzard finds out that simple to maintain servers are making more money than creating new content altogether.

[Nurasu]

Classic servers are going to have the worst combination of garbage retail players and utter elitist dick heads if the 100,000 threads since it was announced are any indication. The community will kill it pretty quickly is my guess.

[Hitei]

What I truly wonder... is how they are going to simulate activity on live when even CRZ won't be able to scrape up enough players to make it look like people are still playing it.

What you describe about might actually be your own worst nightmare. Blizzard finds out that simple to maintain servers are making more money than creating new content altogether.

How would ~a dozen classic servers be making more than a couple hundred live ones? Classic is going to do fine as its own niche thing, but you are legitimately just delusional. It is never going to be as profitable as live, which will have far, far more realms/players, has tokens, has pets/mounts, has expansions every two years and has a constant influx of new content that people resub for.

[melodramocracy]

It will see a huge spike when it opens, and then drop off in about 2 weeks, then lose another 2/3rds of the remaining players after 2-3 months. At that point, it will start to level off, but I don't believe that classic will have more players than retail, on average.

[Nurasu]

What I truly wonder... is how they are going to simulate activity on live when even CRZ won't be able to scrape up enough players to make it look like people are still playing it.

What you describe about might actually be your own worst nightmare. Blizzard finds out that simple to maintain servers are making more money than creating new content altogether.

Correct me if I'm wrong please, but I'm not aware of any private servers that had more than 20,000 users. I would be absolutely shocked if the classic servers maintain more than 1 million players just because they're "more legitimate".